Life on Mars

Damon plays as­tro­naut left be­hind
on red planet

blows,’ but these days, a guide through the seem­ingly end­less flurry of pop-cul­ture of­fer­ings is just what we need. With that in mind, here is what’s

on the radar in TV, mu­sic and film for the

com­ing week.

TV

BIG EVENTS TUES­DAY: Grand­fa­thered (Fox/City, 7 p.m.); The Grinder (Fox/City, 7:30 p.m.) BIG PIC­TURE: Back-to-back sit­coms bank­ing on vets... ev­ery­thing old re­ally is new again. Grand­fa­thered finds John Sta­mos in the role of Jimmy, “the ul­ti­mate bach­e­lor” and res­tau­ra­teur. Imag­ine a sane Char­lie Sheen. He’s the kind of man who cares more about his ca­reer — and avoid­ing creases in his pants — than peo­ple. Jimmy’s pri­or­i­ties are up­ended when he learns he has an adult son (Josh Peck) and baby grand­daugh­ter. Is a full house bet­ter than an empty one? ( The an­swer? Yes, if it isn’t home to an Olsen twin.) Ad­ven­tures in babysit­ting, di­a­per- chang­ing and self­less­ness all come with the new ter­ri­tory. Mean­while, The Grinder finds Rob Lowe play­ing Dean, a vain ac­tor best known for his role as a melo­dra­matic TV lawyer. When he de­cides to join his fam­ily’s law firm de­spite no ac­tual le­gal ex­pe­ri­ence, laugh­ter en­sues. Fred Sav­age ( The Won­der Years)

MU­SIC

plays his brother, and the straight man of the promis­ing comedic duo. FORECAST: Lowe makes ev­ery show bet­ter as part of an ensem­ble or sup­port­ing cast, so The Grinder will be found guilty of en­ter­tain­ing. Grand­fa­thered will also be a welcome ad­di­tion to your TV fam­ily. HONOURABLE MEN­TIONS: Code Black ( Wed­nes­day, CBS/CTV, 9 p.m.); Dr. Ken (Fri­day, ABC, 7:30 p.m.). There are two new doc­tor shows com­ing to TV, but I’m still wait­ing for a re­al­ity show based on the old Has­bro game Op­er­a­tion. (Surely, mod­ern science can find a way to make a pa­tient’s nose glow red?). Code Black, based on the 2014 doc­u­men­tary film, fol­lows the tri­als and oc­ca­sional er­rors in the coun­try’s busiest emer­gency room. Don’t ex­pect love tri­an­gles, three­somes, McDreamys and other such non­sense — this is all about sav­ing lives. Mean­while, Ken Jeong ( Com­mu­nity, The Hang­over) ba­si­cally plays him­self be­fore he started play­ing other peo­ple. The doc­tor-turned-ac­tor plays a physi­cian with shabby bed­side man­ner in the sit­com Dr. Ken. BIG RE­LEASES FRI­DAY: Janet Jack­son ( Un­break­able); the Sheep­dogs ( Fu­ture Nos­tal­gia) BIG PIC­TURE: Jack­son is back with her first ef­fort in seven years, while Missy El­liot and J. Cole help keep things fresh with guest ap­pear­ances. An of­fi­cial state­ment said the al­bum in­cludes “Janet’s views on where we stand to­day as in­di­vid­u­als and as the in­ter­re­lated el­e­ments of a planet.” That’s laud­able. I guess. But with song ti­tles such as Dammn Baby, No Sleep and Gon B Al­right, don’t ex­pect her new ma­te­rial to be taught in any English classes. Mean­while, Saska­toon’s the Sheep­dogs don’t go bark­ing up any new trees, stick­ing with their safe, ac­ces­si­ble brand of retro rock ’n’ roll. Ag­ing hip­pies, get out your faded tie-dye! Fit­tingly, the al­bum in­cludes a med­ley of six song frag­ments ( Abbey Road- style). FORECAST: Fu­ture Nos­tal­gia will find sen­ti­ment in its favour. While Jack­son’s re­turn will fuel fan nos­tal­gia, she will strug­gle to break through the din of to­day’s ar­se­nal of young pop queens. But she could start a new trend of al­bums named af­ter M. Night Shya­malan movies. The Sixth Sense? Signs? Af­ter Earth? The Last Air­ben­der? Your move, record­ing in­dus­try. HONOURABLE MEN­TION: Col­lec­tive Soul ( See What You Started by Con­tin­u­ing); Born Ruf­fi­ans ( Ruff ). It’s a draw in the bat­tle for head-scratch­ing al­bum ti­tle of the week. While fans look­ing to re­live the ’90s will take a shine to Col­lec­tive Soul’s ninth re­lease, On­tario’s Born Ruf­fi­ans catchy, high-tempo in­die rock has more bite.

AI­DAN MON­AGHAN / TWEN­TI­ETH CEN­TURY FOX FILM COR­PO­RA­TION

Matt Damon plays an as­tro­naut who must find a way to sur­vive on a hos­tile planet.